NJ Ethics Committee Member Shaun Blick Hit With Attorney Ethics Complaints
NJ attorney & member of the Ethics Committee of the Supreme Court of New Jersey Shaun I. Blick is the subject of professional ethics complaints submitted to both the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics and the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Complaints were also filed against attorney Eric J. Warner of Blick’s law firm, Blick Law LLC, Somerset, NJ. Consumer watchdog and web publisher Sean Kelly of Lancaster, PA filed the complaints February 10 with documentation of Blick’s & Warner’s abuse of the legal system to wage a harassment and intimidation campaign on behalf of their client, former attorney and commissioned franchise broker Mark Schnurman, & his company the Perfect Franchise, Shohola, PA.
LANCASTER, PA – (UnhappyFranchisee.Com) The Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct were adopted by Order of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania April 1, 1988 and last revised November 14, 2024. The Rules provide clear guidance and mandates to ensure that attorneys licensed to practice in PA act professionally and responsibly not only as advocates for their clients, but as officers of the legal system.
The Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct states:
“A lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having a special responsibility for the quality of justice.”
“A lawyer should use the law’s procedures only for legitimate purposes and not to harass or intimidate others.”
“A lawyer shall not knowingly… make a false statement of material fact”
“A lawyer shall not… unlawfully obstruct another party’s access to evidence or unlawfully alter, destroy or conceal a document or other material…”
The NJ Courts Rules of Professional Conduct states:
“A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, nor assert or controvert an issue therein unless the lawyer knows or reasonably believes that there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous…”
“A lawyer shall not… unlawfully obstruct another party’s access to evidence or unlawfully alter, destroy or conceal a document or other material…
“A lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact or law…”
“It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to… engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation”
Attorney Shaun Blick, Managing Member of Blick Law LLC & NJ Ethics Committee Member
Attorney Shaun Blick practices law in PA and NJ and agreed to abide by these rules as an officer and representative of the legal system.
Sean Kelly, an independent journalist and publisher of the consumer watchdog website UnhappyFranchisee.Com, has filed complaints with both PA and NJ disciplinary bodies requesting an investigation of alleged harassment and intimidation waged by Warner and Shaun Blick, Managing Member of Blick Law, LLC.
In addition to overseeing Eric Warner at Blick Law, LLC, Shaun Blick is also an appointed member of Ethics Committee of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
You can read the Ethics Complaint filed against Eric J. Warner here:
The Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Pennsylvania Judicial Center 601 Commonwealth Ave, Suite 5600 P.O. Box 62625 Harrisburg, PA 17106-2625
RE: Attorney Eric Warner PA Attorney ID: 315003
Attorney Shaun Blick PA Attorney ID: 326566
February 10, 2025
Updated February 14, 2025
RE: PA Supreme Court Complaint Against Attorney Shaun Blick, & Attorney Eric J. Warner of Blick Law, LLC working on behalf of their client: former member of the NJ Bar Mark Schnurman, The Perfect Franchise
I am a responsible, law-abiding individual, a journalist and a reporter who works, unpaid, for the public interest. I have 37 years of professional experience in the franchise industry. For the past 20 years, I have published the franchise industry issues, discussion & watchdog website UnhappyFranchisee.com (Unhappy Franchisee).
In 2014, in a court ruling on my behalf, Superior Court Judge Richard J. Henderson validated the intent and the constitutionally protected nature of my writing and my Unhappy Franchisee website as “a public forum in connection with an issue of public interest.”
Unhappy Franchisee serves the critical function as a conduit for current and former franchise owners (franchisees) to share anonymous information and warnings regarding deceptive sales representations and/or predatory practices in the industry.
These warnings have played a major role in informing, educating & alerting inexperienced, trusting individuals and families (including many service members, Veterans and military families) to the true nature of investments that could cause them financial and personal devastation, crushing debt, the loss of their savings, retirement accounts and homes.
The Intent of the Harassers: To Eliminate Whistleblower Warnings & Chill Free Speech
Promoters of controversial and questionable franchise opportunities are desperate to remove the current warnings and prevent future warnings that would enable inexperienced and trusting franchise investors to make informed, educated investment decisions.
These franchise brokers, promoters and sellers have enlisted attorneys willing to violate their oaths as members of the bar association and their responsibilities as officers of the court to use blatantly false allegations and nuisance lawsuits in a continuing harassment and intimidation campaign against me, UnhappyFranchisee.Com and the franchise owners who reveal the truth about the investments they are misrepresenting.
I Am Being SLAPPed by Blick Law LLC Attorneys Shaun Blick & Eric J. Warner on behalf of Former Attorney Mark Schnurman
The Wikipedia definition of a SLAPP provides a concise description of the capricious and unethical attacks members of the NJ Bar Association continue to wage against me:
Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits),[1] or strategic litigation against public participation,[2] are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.[3]
In a typical SLAPP, the plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff’s goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs, or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism.
In addition to misusing the legal system by filing a two meritless lawsuits against an unrepresented individual, these individuals have made false statements certified to be true, withheld documents from the court and their bullying victim, lied about fundamental facts including whether they’d provided me with service and documents, as required by law.
I’ll provide an overview of the individuals and their harassment campaign, and can provide a more detailed overview and documentation upon request.
Mark Adam Schnurman, The Perfect Franchise (Client)
NJ Attorney ID 015021993; NJ Bar Admission Date: 03/31/1994 Status: RETIRED.
Mark Schnurman is a former attorney turned commissioned franchises sales broker and owner of The Perfect Franchise. He is a resident of Shohola, PA. Schnurman holds a JD from Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and had been admitted to practice law in NJ & FL.
Shaun I. Blick, Managing Member, Blick Law LLC, Somerset, NJ
NJ Attorney ID 013752006; NJ Bar Admission Date: 12/08/2006
PA Attorney ID: 326566; Date of Admission: 1/15/2019
Attorney Shaun I. Blick is founder and managing member of Blick Law, LLC. As a member of the District Ethics Committee for District IIIA (DEC IIIA) for Ocean County, New Jersey, Shaun Blick is certainly aware that his conduct is a violation of professional ethics.
Eric J. Warner, Attorney, Blick Law LLC, The Law Office of Eric J. Warner LLC
NJ Attorney ID 036512006; Bar Admission Date 02/05/2007
PA Attorney ID: 315003; Bar Admission Date: 12/4/2012
Eric James Warner appears to have worked on behalf of Blick Law LLC for a number of years, and also maintains his own practice as The Law Office of Eric J. Warner LLC in Somerset, NJ. Calls to him at the Blick Law office were not transferred and requests for a return call went unanswered.
RE: Civil Case CI-25-00111 Court of Common Pleas, Second Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Civil Trial Division, Schnurman and The Perfect Franchise v. Sean Kelly and Relentless Inc. d/b/a UnhappyFranchisee.Com
In filing and pursuing Case CI-25-00111, Eric Warner and his client failed to properly serve the Defendant, made knowingly false statements that Defendant had been served, withheld documents filed against me, made false allegations sworn to be factual, and withheld documents from the court and me to hide their deception.
Prior to this filing, Shaun Blick sent me a vague cease & desist demand claiming I sent a defamatory email about his client. He gave me no opportunity to comply & didn’t respond to repeated requests for clarification or update.
Blick Law LLC attorney Eric Warner filed an Order to Show Cause action in the Court of Common Pleas, Second Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Civil Trial Division, under assigned Case Number CI-25-00111. He falsely stated that he had sent me the Petition, Memorandum and other filed documents. He never served me with the documents and I was unaware of their existence.
After two weeks, attorney Warner filed a Praecipe to Withdraw the Order to Show Cause with Prejudice. He served the Praecipe to me via certified mail with the complaint in CI-25-00133 attached so as not to alert me that there were documents I hadn’t seen before (CI-25-00111).
The Petition and Memorandum submitted in Case CI-25-00111 were based on blatant falsehoods. It now referred to alleged defamation in a published article (not an email) which does not and never existed. To conceal the blatant fraud and keep the SLAPP going, attorney Warner falsely stated that he had included three exhibits but actually included no exhibits.
Each of the six Counts alleged in Case CI-25-00111 alleging damaged relationships with Schnurman’s clients were knowingly & blatantly false, since the alleged published article did not exist.
RE: Civil Case CI-25-00133 Court of Common Pleas, Second Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Civil Trial Division, Schnurman and The Perfect Franchise v. Sean Kelly and Relentless Inc. d/b/a UnhappyFranchisee.Com
Prior to this filing, Shaun Blick sent me a vague cease & desist demand claiming I sent a defamatory email about his client. He gave me no opportunity to comply & didn’t respond to repeated requests for clarification or update.
Blick Law LLC attorney Eric Warner filed a lawsuit against me alleging defamation and five other counts in the Court of Common Pleas, Second Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Civil Trial Division, under assigned Case Number CI-25-00133.
The complaint was unfounded and based on the blatant falsehood that I had published a defamatory article on my website (his demand letter had referenced an email). To hide the fact that the defamatory article he described was a fabrication, Warner stated that he had attached the article as one of three exhibits. No exhibits were attached with the Complaint in either the initial court filing or service to me.
I had to make repeated requests to Mr. Warner for the Exhibits over the course of a week. Mr. Warner was uncooperative and initially refused to communicate with me, insisting he’d only communicate with an attorney. I stated I was unrepresented by counsel at this point. Attorney Warner made the misrepresentation that I could not converse with him since an individual cannot represent an LLC. I reminded attorney Warner that he sued me, personally, and my corporation, which was not an LLC.
When attorney Warner relented and sent me two files he claimed were exhibits, they did not match the description in the complaint, and a third was missing altogether. The one referred to as the basis of the lawsuit was an email message sent to Schnurman and his company, not a publicly viewable article as he alleged in the complaint.
Each of the six Counts alleged in Case CI-25-00133 alleging damaged relationships with Schnurman’s clients were knowingly & blatantly false, since the defamatory language did not exist as a publicly viewable article accessible to Schnurman’s clients. Statements alleging calls from upset clients and lost business made throughout the complaint were not possibly true.
Attorney Eric J. Warner has been uncooperative, unresponsive and seemingly unfamiliar with the particulars of the Complaint. Our insurance carrier tried to contact him by phone three times with a question and was unsuccessful. In the end, a receptionist relayed his answer. The wrong exhibits have been filed to the court, including a duplicate files, one not mentioned in the complaint, and one still missing. This and a disconnect with process service & certification lead me to suspect that former lawyer Mark Schnurman may have drafted the bulk of the meritless draft and Eric Warner is grudgingly doing the filing. Just a gut feeling.
Both attorney Eric Warner, Blick Law LLC, former attorney Mark Schnurman certified false statements in court documents for the sole purpose of harassing, intimidating and attempting to run up my legal costs to eliminate legitimate & lawful warnings regarding Mark Schnurman’s business practices.
After repeated calls from my insurance company, Eric J. Warner refused to discuss or grant an extension while the insurance company researched whether my policy provided me with the ability to retain counsel. Despite not even having filed a complete or accurate set of documents, Warner sent a notice of default to me at my home via Fedex on February 14, 2025 before I could retain & get counsel up-to-speed.
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Tags: Blick Law, attorney Shaun Blick, attorney Eric J. Warner, NJ ethics committee, SLAPP, Mark Schnurman, Mark Adam Schnurman, The Perfect Franchise, franchise consultants, franchise brokers,Phoenix Franchise Brands, Fetch! Pet Care franchise, Furry Land Grooming franchise, Spray Foam Genie franchise, SLAPP, Strategic Lawuit Against Public Participation, PA, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
